Continuous rolling mills and/or repeater rolling mills

ABSTRACT

THE INVENTION RELATES TO A ROLLING STAND UNIT COMPRISING A ROLLING STAND AND DRIVING MEANS FOR CONTINUOUS AND/OR REPEATER ROLLING MILLS. IN ORDER TO MAKE IT POSSIBLE TO USE THE ROLLING STAND UNIT FOR (1) CONTINUOS ROLLING MILLS, (2) REPEATER ROLLING MILLS, AND (3) CONTINUOUS AND REPEATER ROLLING MILLS, THE ROLLING STAND UNIT IS PROVIDED WITH DEVICES FOR THE ADJUSTMENT OF THE PASS LINE OF THE ROLLING STAND TO VARIOUS SIDE ANGLES IN RELATION TO THE MAIN ROLLING DIRECTION OF THE ROLLING MILL.

Feb. 23, 1971 NORLINDH 3,564,891

CONTINUOUS ROLLING MILLS AND/OR REPEATER ROLLING MILLS Filed June 21. 1968 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Uzi-1311::

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CONTINUOUS ROLLING MILLS ANDYOR REPEATER ROLLING MILLS Filed June 21, 1968 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 CONTINUOUS ROLLING MILLS AND/OR REPEATER ROLLING MILLS Filed June 21,

Feb. 23, 1971 s. E. M NORLINDH 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 rz/mz Z'L u 44 mi /z zm/wzz) 64-, x21 1 Maia/fin 4 Lm 1 KZffiuzn d CONTINUOUS ROLLING MILLS AND/OR REPEATER ROLLING MILLS 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed June 21, 1968 J J 4 H M M Z L m /4( United States Patent M 3,564,891 CONTINUOUS ROLLING MILLS AND/0R REPEATER ROLLING MILLS Sven Erik Malte Norlindh, Morgardshammar, Sweden,

assignor to Morgardshammar Aktiebolag, Morgardshammar, Sweden, a Swedish joint-stock company Filed June 21, 1968, Ser. No. 739,023 Claims priority, application Sweden, June 22, 1967, 8,938/ 67 Int. Cl. B21b 39/00 US. Cl. 72231 6 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Rolling of bars, wire or strip is made in rolling mills comprising several rolling stands. These rolling stands can either be arranged so that the rolled material passes from stand to stand in a substantially straight line, or the stands can be arranged so that the hot material forms a wave line with side loops of 180 to 90 direction change between subsequent stands. The straight line arrangement is called a continuous mill arrangement, and the arrangements with side loops are called repeater mill arrangements. Repeater mill arrangements with less than 180 deflection of the material are also called wave line mill arrangements.

For the rolling of angles, channels and certain other shapes, a straight continuous rolling mill arrangement is preferred or necessary. Rolling is then done either with a stretch between the rolling stands, or with loop regulation, which means that a slack is maintained between stands. The possibilities for suitable loop regulation are, however, inadequate when rolling thick material, which cannot be bent much, and when rolling thin material at high speeds.

When wire is rolled in a straight, continuous rolling mill with loop regulation, the slack can only provide a stored excess length of the hot material of about 3 inches between two stands. At a rolling speed of, for instance 6,000 ft./min., this slack will be consumed in A second if the speed error is only 1%. Tremendous speed and precision are thus required of the motor speed control for the different rolling stands, if the slack is to be maintained at all times.

If instead 180 repeaters with for instance a loop travel of 3 ft. is used, a slack of 6 ft. excess length is available between two rolling stands. This arrangement thus offers a more reliable loop regulation and better tolerances in the rolled material, because stretching can easily be avoided.

When a wave line mill arrangement is used, a slack with stored excess length between the above mentioned values (3 inches to 6 ft.) as obtained, the exact length depending on the angle between the passline of the rolling stands and the main rolling direction. The wave line mill arrangement is particularly useful at very high rolling speeds, since the resistance owing to the friction caused by the centrifugal force when passing a 90 repeater is only half the resistance encountered when passing a 180 repeater.

3,554,891 Patented Feb. 23, 1971 When rolling material that has a tendency to stick to guides (for instance stainless steel of certain qualities, pure nickel and pure titanium), it is advisable to roll in a straight continuous rolling mill arrangement with a stretch between the rolling stands. However, as a rule it is necessary to roll with 180 to the last two to six passes in order to attain the desired tolerances, because stretching affects the dimension of the rolled material.

The aim of the present invention is to achieve so flexible and adjustable a rolling stand unit that thanks to this rolling stand unit one is able to build a rolling mill which may easily be adjusted to any actual requirement and thus provide the rolling mill arrangement which is most suitable for the rolling at hand.

The present invention is mainly characterized in that the rolling stand unit is provided with devices for the adjustment of the pass line of the rolling stand to various side angles in relation to the main rolling direction of the rolling mill.

In continuous rolling mills it is known that the rolling stand units may be rotatable with the axis of rotation coinciding substantially with the pass line, in which case twist guides become superfluous when the hot material is transferred from one rolling stand to the next.

It is then further appropriate that the rolling stand unit according to the invention should also be made rotatable with the axis of rotation coinciding substantially with the pass line of the rolling stand so that elevation angle adjustment becomes possible and twist guides can be avoided.

The present invention is exemplified in FIGS. 1 to 4 where FIG. 1 is a plan view of three rolling stand units arranged in a straight continuous mill arrangement.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of three rolling stand units in a wave line mill arrangement.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of three rolling stand units in repeater rolling mill arrangement.

FIG. 4 is an end view according to line IVIV in FIG. 3. a

In FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, 0 represents the main rolling direction of the three rolling stand units 1, 2 and 3 the pass lines of which are marked 11, 21 and 31 (FIGS. 2 and 3). The side angles of the pass lines in relation to the main rolling direction 0 are marked 12, 22 and 32 (FIGS. 2 and 3). The elevation angle adjustment of the rolling stands in FIG. 4 is marked 13, 23 and 33.

A rolling stand unit (FIG. 1) consists of a rolling stand and a driving device and thus comprises rolls 4, a roll chock with bearings 5, roll adjustment equipment 6, couplings 7, framework 46, reduction gear 8 and driving motor 9, which may be cooled by means of a fan and heat exchanger 10, if desired.

Every rolling stand unit can be adjusted to the desired side angle position 12, 22, 32 (FIGS. 2 and 3) in relation to the main rolling direction 0, turning on pivots 41, which may be vertical, or inclined, if one should wish to make the repeater plane slope towards the horizontal plane.

The main rolling direction 0 is defined as the connecting line between pivots 41 of the various rolling mill stands.

The pivots 41 for the side angle adjustment may comprise a support stand 47 (FIG. 4) with a thrust bearing device, fixed to the concrete foundation 48, and accepting a pivot axle 42 supporting the mill stand unit framework 46.

A transverse axle 44 for elevation angle adjustment is mounted in a transverse bearing or eye in the pivot axle. The mating surfaces may be in the shape of threads 43, as shown in FIG. 1 (center part). The threads 43 will take up the axial forces arising during rolling.

The connecting frame 46 of the rolling stand unit may be made to slide on an extension of the transverse axle 44 via sliding guide surfaces 45, which makes it possible to displace the rolling stand unit laterally when changing grooves.

Thus, the pivot axle 42 and the transverse axle 44 form a cardanic suspension of the rolling stand units, allowing simultaneous adjustment of side angles (12, 22, 32) and elevation angles (13, 23, 33) of each rolling stand unit. During rolling each mill stand unit will be locked in the desired position, for instance by means of supports 49 (FIG. 4).

The side angle may be made to vary between about 45 in a clockwise direction (12, 32 in FIG. 2) and about 150 in a counterclockwise direction (22 in FIG. 3) while the elevation angle may be made to vary between a vertical position with the driving machinery downwards (angle 23 in FIG. 4) and a vertical position with the driving machinery upwards, if so large an elevation angle adjustment should be desirable.

In FIG. 1, which shows a straight continuous line, the hot material runs straight through the three rolling stands 1, 2 and 3, and the passlines in the various rolling stands 11, 21 and 31 coincide with the main rolling direction 0. The side angles are zero but the elevation angles may vary according to requirement in each particular case. It is also possible to apply loop regulation between the rolling stands in a known manner, even though the possible slack is very small in this case.

In FIG. 2, where the hot material runs in a sinusoidal wave line, material 14 after passing rolling stand 1 is kept in the desired position between an outerguide fence 15 and an inner fence 16 by regulating the speed of the preceding or following rolling stand. In the same manner material 24 after passing rolling stand 2 is kept between fences 25 and 26. The side angles 12, 22 and 32 which are here shown at 45 may in principle vary between in a clockwise and 150 in a counterclockwise direction as shown in FIG. 3. Thus, the side angle position of the rolling stand units in relation to the main rolling direction in FIG. 2 is an intermediate position between FIGS. 1 and 3. In addition it is at the same time possible to adjust the rolling stands to desired elevation angles.

In FIGS. 3 and 4 rolling stand 1 is shown at an elevation angle of 45 in relation to the vertical line. This arrangement is suitable for oval-square rolling, since the square from rolling stand 1 is then inserted into the oval groove of rolling stand 2 placed on the fiatside (see FIG. 4). If rolling stand 1 were in a vertical position the square would be caught in a diagonal position in rolling stand 2 and then turn onto the flat side. The leading part of the oval would then be filled more completely or possibly be overfilled and the entry guides before rolling stand 2 would have to be adjusted so that they are wider than the side of the square.

On the other hand, the intermediate oval before rolling stand 1 must be turned 45 before entering into rolling stand 1, which as a matter of fact is no disadvantage, since there is so great a difference between the width and .4 thickness of intermediate ovals that this may easily be done by means of twist guides.

If the rolling should instead be carried out as ovalround, diamond-square or oval-oval, the rolling stands are arranged with an elevation angle of 90 in relation to each other.

In both continuous rolling mills and repeater rolling mills a control pulpit is usually placed relatively high above the floor plane in order to give a good view of the rolling mill. If the pivot 41 in FIG. 4 is arranged with 20 inclination to the vertical line, the repeater plane will be inclined 20 towards the floor plane. The' control pulpit can then be placed on or slightly above the floor plane and give as good a view as in conventional mills. This means that, when required, the mill operator can take part in the work in the rolling train without first climbing down from a control pulpit placed high above the floor.

I claim:

1. A rolling stand unit for a rolling mill having a plurality of such rolling stand units, the main direction of rolling being defined by a connecting line between the stand units, and a pass line for each rolling stand unit being defined by the axis of the material being rolled in each stand, said rolling stand unit comprising pivot means for permitting rotation of said rolling stand unit about an axis substantially perpendicular to said pass line, thereby allowing variation of the side angle between said pass line and said main rolling direction.

2. A rolling stand unit as claimed in claim 1 wherein said pivot means are arranged to permit rotation about a substantially vertical axis.

3. A rolling stand unit as claimed in claim 1 wherein said pivot means are arranged to permit rotation about an axis inclined from the vertical.

4. A rolling stand as claimed in claim 1 wherein said pivot means comprises a shaft secured to said rolling unit and a bearing device fixedly mounted on the foundation for the mill, said shaft being rotatably mounted in said bearing device.

5. A rolling mill comprising a plurality of rolling stand units as claimed in claim 1 wherein each pivot means of the individual stands are arranged to make the axes of all the stands substantially parallel.

6. A rolling stand unit as claimed in claim 1 and further including a second pivot means permitting rotation of said stand unit about an axis substantially coinciding with said pass line, whereby the mill stand may be properly oriented relative to the material being rolled so that twisting of the material is avoided.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS MILTON S. MEHR, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 7 2 234, 237 

